"Mr. Cockcroft, how much do you say? Twenty pounds? ”

Hearing this offer, Chen Muwu's first reaction was that this Englishman was dishonest and deceived himself by treating him as a Kaizi.

But twenty pounds is too low, isn't it?

Who cheats money and will cheat twenty pounds?

Even if you get cheated out of twenty pounds as you wish, what can you do with all this money?

Oppenheimer's previous purchases of imported bananas and imported pineapples cost him several pounds!

Chen Muwu couldn't figure it out.

And he also saw Cockcroft's determined eyes, and his face seemed to be full of the three big words "ask for praise".

This time he was completely unsure, could it be that this person was telling the truth? He didn't bluff himself?

For Chen Muwu, who has already achieved financial freedom, twenty pounds does not seem to be worth much.

But twenty pounds for Cockcroft is undoubtedly a lot of money, which is two-thirds of the scholarship offered to him by St. John's College every year!

Previously, Dirac received a scholarship of £70 a year from St. John's College.

A Puritan ascetic like him, who did not smoke, drink, or socialize, was not enough pounds a year to live at Cambridge University, and had to add an additional £140 scholarship from the University of Bristol.

Cockcroft, who was only thirty pounds a year, wanted to survive at Cambridge University not only by getting some support from his family, but also by finding ways to earn money in his free time.

Especially after getting married this summer, his living expenses have suddenly become larger.

After entering Chen Muwu's group, Cockcroft learned that this Dr. Chen actually paid Zhao Zhongyao out of his own pocket, so he also had some subtle thoughts in his heart.

If he behaves well enough, Dr. Chen will probably be able to send him some money, right?

Looking at Chen Muwu's expression of disbelief, Cockcroft immediately reflected in his heart, did he quote the price of this starting motor?

He hurriedly took out the budget sheet he had made a long time ago and explained to Chen Muwu: "Dr. Chen, I have lowered the budget as much as possible this time, and this price will not fluctuate by more than ten percent compared with the final price.

"If you want to continue to cut, you have to start with the screws, nuts and rivets that connect the machine.

"If you don't buy these small parts, but use them directly from the Cavendish Laboratory, you'll probably save a few more shillings. Other than that, it really can't be cut any further. ”

Chen Muwu didn't expect that he had pry such a sincere person from under Kapitsa this time.

He's really thinking about himself, thinking about how he can save money.

"John, you're mistaken. I'm not disgusted that you have given too much budget, but that he is a little too little.

"At first, I thought that hundreds or thousands of pounds would not be enough to build a starting motor, so I had to look for money everywhere.

"I never imagined that it would cost £20 to build an electrostatic starter capable of 1.5 million volts.

"Guess how much money I've gotten now? Six thousand pounds! According to the budget you give, it should be enough to build 300 electrostatic starting motors!

"So there's no need to save me money, everything is the best!"

"But, Dr. Chen, all the materials I use in my budget are already the best."

Hearing the figure of six thousand pounds, Cockcroft was shocked, but he still said with a straight face.

His hand holding the budget sheet was still hovering in mid-air, which meant that he insisted on letting Chen Muwu look at what was written on it to prove that what he said was true.

Eighty centimeter spherical electrodes, two-meter high stent......

Wait, doesn't that mean there's no need to build a multi-story accelerator like Westinghouse's particle grinder.

As long as you are in a laboratory room that is slightly higher than the usual room, you can build this million-volt hoister?

Twenty pounds, then, seems to be enough.

Whether it's iron, tin, or glass, the materials themselves are inexpensive.

Even if you make them into a specific shape, it's just a matter of paying a little more for processing.

By analogy, it seems to be the vacuum pump that GE sold to Chen Muwu before.

It's just a few glass tubes, a few one-way valves, and a few milliliters of mercury......

The cost of these materials, combined, will not exceed ten pounds.

But if someone dares to sell you £2,000, £10 for materials and £1,990 for technology, what can you do with me?

Want it? If you want it, just pay for it!

It is estimated that General Electric also knows that the transaction on the vacuum pump is completely a one-shot deal, so they dare to ask for it and must have such a high price.

Indeed, since Chen Muwu completed the electron diffraction experiment, the vacuum pump was handed over to Professor Aston.

He has now succeeded in creating a more accurate and faster vacuum pump for use in his mass spectrometer.

Chen Muwu thinks that if Cambridge University sells this "Kelvin-Chen-style starting motor" in the future, it is estimated that it will face the same result as the General Electric vacuum pump.

Therefore, the pricing of this starting motor must not be too low, General Electric costs ten pounds and dares to sell it for two thousand, and its own cost is twenty pounds, how can you say that it has to be sold for four thousand pounds to return to the capital, right?

Although Cockcroft said that twenty yuan was enough, Chen Muwu couldn't really just give them twenty pounds.

When the lion asked for funds, he opened his mouth, but when he took out money, he withheld and searched.

If this matter really spreads, won't you be looked down upon by others?

So in the end, Chen Muwu asked Oppenheimer to take out two hundred pounds from the fund and give it to Zhao Zhongyao and Cockcroft, so that they could try to do it themselves.

He also specifically told Oppenheimer to take two hundred pounds out of the "funds", not from his own purse.

If the two-person No. 1 test fails, then continue to increase the investment of funds until it succeeds.

But if their experiment is successful and they really make a high voltage that can reach 1.5 million volts, then Chen Mu can give an account to the teacher.

Two hundred pounds were spent, and five thousand eight hundred pounds remained.

Chen Muwu will definitely not take this money alone, but he will not return it to Chadwick's account book.

He wanted to continue to increase the potential difference that could be achieved by this electrostatic starter on the basis of 1.5 million volts.

Now that the navies of the whole world are engaged in the "doctrine of big ships and giant artillery", then they can completely follow suit and engage in a "doctrine of large electrodes and high voltages"!

Americans still have a set of names, and the name "Atom Crusher" is very domineering when you hear it.

I don't know how much money this naming right can sell for at that time, and how much research funding it can bring to itself.

My old Chen is really a little genius who makes money!

……

Zhao Zhongyao and Cockcroft, who got the funds, began to slowly change the starting motor from paper to reality in the Cavendish laboratory according to the design plan on the drawings.

Chen Muwu did not participate in it, because he still had the last few classes left, and after the lecture, he would have fulfilled his obligations as an academician of Trinity College this semester.

Next year, I can't say anything like such a simple class, and I have to give intensity to these proud children of Cambridge University.

In December, one night, Kapitsa went to Chen Muwu's room as a guest.

They both live in Trinity College, and it is very convenient for them to visit each other.

Kapitsa came this time to inquire where Chen Muwu would go during the upcoming winter vacation.

He still has the habit of returning to St. Petersburg every year, and now he has changed his name to Letegrad, but he always schedules his visits until the summer.

Winter Russia is so cold that there is no desire to go back at all.

Last year, he went to Stockholm with Chen Muwu, which reminded him of the fear of being dominated by cold winters at high latitudes.

"I'm going to London before Christmas to give a Christmas lecture, and after that, I'm going to France."

"Chen, what did you say? Christmas lectures? I remember you didn't even believe in teaching, right? The priest of a church in London can't think of it, so please go and preach to them? ”

"Uh...... Peter, I am indeed not religious. But is it possible that it was not a priest who invited me, but Sir Prague? I was the keynote speaker at this year's Christmas lecture at the Royal Institute. ”

The invisible pretending is the most deadly, and even the first chatter in Cambridgeshire was choked and had nothing to say.

Chen Muwu's strength and fame are all there, and he is completely qualified to hold this Christmas lecture.

The Russians could only change the subject as if nothing had happened: "Well, well, you said you were going to Paris, right?" What day does it depart? ”

"It should be after the lecture, probably on the 21st. I don't know what day Robert bought me a ticket, I'll ask him tomorrow. ”

"You've got your tickets! I'm still thinking of going to Paris with you! ”

The previous greetings were all Kapitsa's foreshadowing.

All he really wanted to say was this last sentence.

After Capitsa became Chadwick's best man in Liverpool this summer, he began to get depressed.

He thought of his deceased wife, and imagined if it weren't for the damn Spanish flu, he would have had children around his knees.

The more he thought about it, the more aggrieved he felt, and before Cambridge started, he ran to Paris alone to relax.

Then, when he came to Capitsa, France, he met someone again who made his heart flutter.

Anna Alekseevna Krylova is a Soviet student studying in Paris, France.

Her father, Alexei Nikolayevich Krylov, was a Sulian mathematician who served in St. Petersburg for the Russian Navy and was the first to translate Principia Mathematica of Natural Philosophy from English to German.

He translated the book in 1915, and Newton wrote it in 1687.

As an aside, the first Chinese edition of the book was even sixteen years later than the Russian version.

It was not until 1931 that the Commercial Press published the complete works translated by Zheng Tae-pu.

Kapitsa and Anna met at a ball hosted by the Sullen embassy in Paris, both of whom were from Leggrad, and both were unaccompanied students studying in Western Europe, so it was natural to fall in love at first sight.

"Do you want to go to Paris too?" Chen Muwu asked knowingly, "It doesn't matter, just let Robert buy a ticket for you." Anyway, around Christmas, the ferries on the English Channel will definitely be added, and he has been running to London twice in three days recently! ”

Oppenheimer travels back and forth between London and Cambridgeshire every day, not to help Chen Muwu with academic and work matters.

He had already bought a ticket to return to the United States before Christmas, and in the twenty days before leaving, he thought about buying more British specialties to take home.

Oppenheimer's style is no different from the kind of college student who left his parents for the first time to study abroad.

It's just that he accidentally bought a lot of Made in USA things.

With the blessing of the Ford system and the Taylor system, the United States has thrown out a lot of other countries in the world in terms of production efficiency.

From the beginning of the First World War, they dumped their products into European countries.

Although the war is now over, Europe's dependence on American goods has long been entrenched.

……

Chen Muwu finished his last linear algebra class, and Cambridge University entered the winter vacation.

As the festive season draws closer by the day, so does the Christmas spirit across the UK.

Walking on the streets of London with Capitsa, Chen Muwu suddenly remembered a family movie, "Love Actually" for no reason.

It's the same in London, it's the same Christmas, but it's more than ninety years earlier.

Knowing that this year's keynote speaker was Chen Muwu, and that it was just in time for the 100th anniversary of the Christmas lecture, the BBC planned to use the not yet perfect live broadcast technology to broadcast the lecture live throughout London.

In this way, the audience of the lectures has changed from young people who love science to all the people in front of the radio in London.

The content of Chen Muwu's lecture could only be changed temporarily, and the elder Prague told him that it must not be too esoteric or too niche.

Neither quantum mechanics nor low-temperature physics are quite eligible, and only the theory of relativity is the most suitable.

Einstein's most classic joke more than ten years later was ruthlessly taken by Chen Muwu as his own.

"When you are facing a beautiful woman, you feel that time flies quickly, and when you sit on the stove, you feel that time passes very slowly, this is the theory of relativity."

Such a wonderful opening remarks received warm applause and laughter from the audience, and also floated throughout London with radio waves.

Chan's Christmas lecture was a huge success, and the next day it was unsurprisingly on the front page of the Daily Telegraph.

By the time the newspaper was delivered to thousands of homes by the early postmen and newsboys, Chen Muwu and Kapitsa were already sitting on the ferry, floating on the calm waters of the English Channel.

(End of chapter)